At the Crossroads (an Origin Story, Part II)

At the Crossroads, PID#11004
-Continuing from Part I-

The voice in her head explained. “Anyway, I can’t believe you haven’t figured out my name already...it’s Allyson.”

“Oh!”

“So change into something sturdier than that adorable sun dress and sandals.  You’ll be traipsing through the hills of Ireland, and while the countryside is absolutely charming, it requires clothing a bit more durable, like jeans and tennies,” suggested Crossroads. “And turn on the television; we should see some coverage of what is happening in Ireland.”

Allyson went to her bedroom to change and turned on her TV.  Crossroads was right. The news of an energy barrier surrounding what looked like a pot of gold was plastered on every news channel. Crowds were gathering and protesters carrying signs like “SAVE THE LEPRECHAUNS!” and “DON’T BE MEAN TO GREEN!” and yelling about their rights to protect the Leprechaun’s native habitat being violated by BADGE.  As she was tying her tennis shoes, Allyson looked up and saw the crock of gold sitting on a small island, surrounded by a shimmering barrier.

“Wow.  A real crock of gold. Behind a force field.  Oddly, not the strangest thing I’ve seen today. Okay, let’s do this.” Grabbing her leather jacket, Allyson began to visualize the island with the crock of gold on it.  She saw the dimensional barrier in her head, and recognized the location of the crock along the barrier.

“Incredible,” exclaimed Crossroads, “you are visualizing and locating as if you’ve been doing this for years! We’ve never seen someone pick it up this fast.”

“I had a good teacher.” Allyson squared her shoulders and reached for the crock. “Time to skip!” Allyson touched the barrier and shifted. She smelled the fresh scents of grass and sea replace the smells of her slightly musty apartment for moment before she was suddenly “shoved.” Stumbling into something smooth, she opened her eyes and found herself still standing in her apartment, leaning against her refrigerator.

“What the hell?” she exclaimed. “I did everything right!  And I know I was there, but something pushed me away. What happened? Hello? Allyson? Crossroads?”

Allyson could feel something was off.  She was alone in her head again and it was very disturbing.
“No no no no! Crossorads!” she cried in panic. “Okay, okay. Calm down, girl. Focus. Focus....” Allyson pictured the dimensional barrier in her mind and focused on the shifting colors, which she found oddly soothing.  She looked at the barrier and thought: "Allyson-Crossroads".

Suddenly, she felt a presence in her mind.

“Ah! Allyson! You found me! Something knocked out our connection. Something we have never experienced before!” exclaimed Crossroads.

“I know! I wasn’t able to skip to the crock in Ireland. It was as if I was pushed away. I ended up in my kitchen.  It’s probably that force field they have around it,” reasoned Allyson. “Let’s try a little further away from the crock.”

Going back into her bedroom Allyson started flipping through the news channels, looking for a view of the action in Ireland. Most channels seemed to be focusing on the force field around the crock or on the crowds of people protesting and watching.  Unfortunately, none of the shots she saw gave a sense of location, mostly close-ups of the crowds without any scenery visible behind them or views of the island with the crock. Until she saw a view of some strangely dressed people standing on a hill looking down at the gathering crowd, that is.

“That looks like a good spot! The hill those people are on. They seem to be discussing or arguing about something.” Picturing the hill in her mind, Allyson reached for the dimensional barrier and skipped.
________________________________________

Allyson felt herself shift and the world exploded in fire and earth. Luckily, Allyson appeared on the hill just outside the area Dr. Blake decided to blast open.  Still, she was definitely unprepared for it. She screamed and hit the ground covering her head as clods of dirt and grass rained down.

“What the hell!” Allyson shouted.

However, no one took the time to answer her question.  A man with an eye patch was yelling at a man who looked like a doctor, a doctor with an energy aura.  Allyson rubbed her eyes, but the glow of blue energy remained around him.  

There was a woman of unearthly beauty, looking somewhat like an elf from those Lord of the Rings movies, but even more...fantastical.  The elven lady was surrounded a pretty rainbow glow. There was a man in a steampunk outfit who also a glow about him.  Not as intense and the doctor’s or the elven lady’s, but still there.  Even the penguin hopping through the debris of the hill had a glow about him.

“Wait.  Penguin? What is a penguin doing her?” Allyson asked, completely bemused by the glowing colors around everyone she saw.

“We often wonder that, ourselves,“ said a stone gargoyle, who had a “stone” colored glow about him.  “Stone” was the best word she could use to describe the aura about him,  It was unique to the gargoyle and unlike anything she had ever seen, but was perfectly suited to him.

Lending Allyson a hand in getting up, the gargoyle said, “Hello, my name is Gar.  What are you doing here?  All civilians are supposed to be over there.”  He indicated the group of civilian protesters and treasure seekers gathered behind the cordon at the bottom of the hill.

“Um, well, um, I have this coin and, um,  I was told I should come here to, um, give it to BADGE,” Allyson stammered, embarrassed.

Just then the man with the eyepatch yelled something about a chase and the hill exploded into activity. Oddly, the man with the eyepatch had no aura about him. None at all.  Allyson found that strange, because she realized that she could see an aura around everyone and everything!  Even the civilians at the bottom of the hill had faint auras, each unique to the individual. The rocks and trees had an aura vitality and life.  The ground and rocks had an aura of strength and durability. Even the tiny furniture strewn all over the ground had faint, but distinct auras.

“Um, Gar, was it? Why is there tiny furniture and rooms in the hill?” Allyson timidly asked.

“Apparently, this is, or was, the home of a creature called a leprechaun,” Gar responded.

Allyson just stared at Gar. Gar stared back, feeling that any other information was unnecessary at this time. She realize that it all made some sort of weird sense, since she was here with a gold coin and so were many other people and heroes, if the little points of light matching the one from her coin she could see was any indication.  And she had just travelled her by dimensional skipping after a very informative and revealing discussion with the voices in her head. So, all in all, the existence of a leprechaun was pretty mundane at this point.

The steampunk guy shouted, “Sir! I have something. It’s a tiny person...smallest person I’ve ever seen.”
In his hand was a tiny man with red hair and beard in a green suit.  Yep.  A leprechaun.  Eyepatch Man and the leprechaun held a short conversation which Allyson couldn’t hear. The elven lady joined them.

Allyson tapped gar on the shoulder, “Gar, um, excuse me, but who are these people?”
“Oh, the older gentleman with the eyepatch and cranky attitude is Nova, Director of BADGE. The lady next to him is Krystal Fae, she is a Fae sorceress. The man in the top hat with the dials and wires is Furious Squirrel, the penguin is Zen, he’s a penguin.” Gar replied

“Cranky attitude?”

“That is what Chase calls it.”

“Who is Chase?” she asked.

“She is a member of BADGE for whom we are looking.  She is somewhere in this area, but we don’t know where,” Gar said.

The barrier protecting the crock of gold vanished.  The leprechaun began yelling something about getting his coins back in the crock and having a gift granted. Allyson was gripped by a feeling of greed and material desire she had never experienced before.  She found herself running headlong with everyone else, both civilian and hero towards the crock to get her gift!

Allyson dropped her gold coin into the pot and received a pair of sunglasses. They appeared to be Ray-bans, actually. They were very nice sunglasses, the Jackie-Ohh model, worth about $120, but still only sunglasses.  She was hoping for something more - something more fantastic, to tell the truth. She put them on anyway, since her eyes were starting to swim with all the glows she kept seeing. She wanted to at least reduce the amount of light to ease her eyes.

With the glare from the sunlight gone, Allyson heaved a sigh of relief and looked around. People were still trying to drop their coins in the pot and get their gifts.  Suddenly, a bright beam of golden light shot out of the pot and into the sky, splitting the clouds.

Allyson looked from the crock to the hill where Nova was holding the Leprechaun. The Leprechaun laughed gaily and shouted “Too late!” and snapped his fingers. The crock flashed brightly and Allyson was knocked off her feet and into the water by a massive shockwave of energy. She surfaced, spluttering, and saw she was not the only one who was blown into the water.

“What the hell was that?!” she cried out, ears still ringing.

Suddenly everyone’s attention was taken by a hooded man floating above the island, holding the golden crock in his hands.

The Hooded Man’s voice boomed over the landscape. “I must thank you, my friend. I never expected any of my kind to willingly give me all of their power.” He vanished in a puff of smoke.

“NOOOOO!” The Leprechaun bellowed.